Cortisol Testing for Adrenal Function

Cortisol is also called "the stress hormone" because it influences, regulates or modulates many changes that happen in the body when is under stress. Is a life sustaining adrenal hormone vital to the maintenance of homeostasis. Here are some stress related diseases that your body can produce in that state:

Cortisol levels vary throughout the day and the night in a circadian rhythm that has its peak around 8 in the morning and lowers at about 4 in the morning. Its essential to health that the adrenals secret more cortisol in response to stress, that will help bodily functions and cortisol levels to return to normal after a stressful event. However, we live in such a high stress-culture that a stress response is call too often to activated, which doesn't give the body enough time to recover and return to a normal state.

This can lead to health problems from the effects of having so much cortisol circulating thru your body or also from the lack of it cause by the adrenal glands if they become chronically fatigued (adrenal fatigued).

Elevated or prolonged levels of cortisol circulation, have shown to have negative effects on your body, some of the health issues are:

Impaired cognitive performance

Dampened thyroid function

Blood sugar imbalances, such as hyperglycemia

Decreased bone density

Sleep disruption

Decreased muscle mass

Elevated blood pressure

Lowered immune function

Slow wound healing

Increased abdominal fat has a larger association with certain health problems than from fat deposited in other parts of the body. Its not uncommon to find patients with increased abdominal fat, to suffer from heart attacks, strokes, higher levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and very low levels of good cholesterol.

A mixture of chronically low levels of cortisol and adrenal fatigue, can carry severe effects, such as: